Pakistan loses out as Nato spends billions on troop withdrawal

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Uzbek soldiers near the Friendship Bridge on the border with AfghanistanReuters

Jeremy Kelly in Kabul and Michael Evans, Pentagon Correspondent

Published at 12:01AM, February 21 2013

Pakistan will lose billions of dollars in transit fees as Western forces
pulling out of Afghanistan in the next two years opt for circuitous yet more
reliable transport routes across the former Soviet Union.

Last week the US military sent 50 lorries on a dry run through Pakistan’s two
border crossings at Chaman and Torkham, the gateway to the Khyber Pass. Yet
with an estimated 28,000 vehicles and 90,000 containers to be repatriated,
the US military expects that only 60 per cent will be ferried through
Pakistan.

During a seven-month blockade of the Pakistan routes after Nato accidentally
killed 24